Dr Hadiza Bawa-Garba wins appeal against being struck off

It is worrying when the doctors and nurses quit. How long are we expected to put up with this?

Fabulous e-mail sent after our outing by the reception and nursing staff- saying OH was the last of the Old School of 100% NHS dedicated GPs - and that the mould has been truly broken. It was so so lovely and touching, and so sad too

That must have been very nice to receive jura2

The same could be said of my lovely dedicated sister-in-law who retired from general practice 4 years ago.

met up with many colleagues of OH in the UK recently - so many are leaving, or choose to work part-time only- thus adding even more to the shortage.

Fabulous e-mail sent after our outing by the reception and nursing staff- saying OH was the last of the Old School of 100% NHS dedicated GPs - and that the mould has been truly broken. It was so so lovely and touching, and so sad too.

I've just come back from the supermarket where I met an old friend. Her DD is a consultant paediatrician in the NHS and.......she has just given in her notice, to work as a part-time locum registrar instead.

I wonder how many other junior doctors, and consultants, will decide it is just not worth the sacrifices they have to make, and the risks to their reputation that they have to take, to uphold the crumbling edifice of the NHS.

Good article - how right he is.

I spent many years of my career working in hospitals and one of the major failings was communication. Sometimes it felt like Chinese whispers when I went on the wards, as I would get different information from different people every time.

In these days of technology he is quite right that an upgrade into the 21st century is required. There is so much brilliant technology for treatments; this needs to move into communication upgrades to help staff on the ground.

He blames inadequate technology and system failures.

Very good article by David Aaronovitch in today's Times on this subject: www.thetimes.co.uk/article/making-doctors-scapegoats-won-t-save-lives-6wfttbv0n?shareToken=8e7378f554916f98e08e1857efb8c1e9

I know from another case that the NHS is very good at covering things up and passing the buck when it suits them. While they are understaffed and overworked things like this will keep happening.

I agree ga. It surprised me that the evidence from Dr Baba-Garba’s log was actually admissible at her trial.
There’s a lot of noise within the NHS about a ‘no-blame’ culture & learning from events, but as soon as anything happens that might be construed as a failure of the system, a scapegoat is quickly found.
And whistleblowers are not just ignored but find their lives are made very difficult.

One aspect of this case that particularly concerns me is that this doctor already used her reflective practice journal to good effect and then, after the event, was encouraged, by her senior consultant, to write down every additional thing that she possibly could have done better and this was then used as evidence against her. The inevitable outcome of that one thing will be that reflective practice will become of limited use in the future, because if doctors think what they write will be used in court proceedings against them they will stop using the journals effectively and lo and behold, lessons will not be learnt.
As a social worker I was constantly assessing and re-assessing my decision making and I also used a journal for reflective practice. In a system that was underfunded and over-bureaucratic I always knew that I would carry the can alone if anything went wrong with my cases.

its so sad. The NHS was a brilliant idea but seems to be so under funded and the staff so stressed.

Thanks Galen.
I am very sorry you have lost your daughter Miss Adventure.

mumofmadboys
As another ex GP I couldn’t agree more.

Thank you MissAdventure, that cannot have been an easy post.
I spent a working lifetime as a nurse, most of it as a senior practitioner. I am married to someone who worked at a senior clinical level in the NHS as well.
We both reflected carefully on 'could have done better', but knew that a time might come when everything went wrong, despite our best efforts. As I type this, I feel the old anxiety creeping into me, and can recall agonisingly some of the moments when the system and I fell short. Never this bad - never even enough to warrant an investigation or complaint, but as someone has bravely said 'there but for the grace of God...'

And the people who tell us to 'work smarter' don't get held to account. The ones who made me most angry were those administrators and managers who would tell us how we should organise our work to be more efficient; but when it came to themselves and their families, they wanted old-fashioned hand-holding by the person they had come to trust, not 'smart working'.

Yes, I've been a bit touchy lately, I know.
I mean no offence to anyone though.
Its just quite frustrating hearing of people falling through the net because of a things which might have helped.
I wouldn't want to be a doctor, working under less than ideal circumstances.

MissAdventure I am sorry, and I think in circumstances like yours, one is hyper sensitive to anything that might have saved their life, if it had been done at all, or done better. But it is not a cliche to say we all make mistakes in our work. For most of us, they are irritating/embarrassing/show our incompetence, but do not affect people's lives. For which I, for one, am very grateful.

In 2013 a public health consultant, Dr Ronald Hsu, was asked to conduct a review and investigation into the number of unexpected deaths across Leicestershire including Leicester Royal infirmary.
His team found that the hospital’s rates were 25% higher than they should have been and that these patients had received poor care which contributed to their deaths.
After he had submitted his report to NHS England he was asked to make many changes to it, make it less hard hitting so as not to destroy faith in the NHS
This tinkering of the report is reminiscent of the sexed up dodgy dossier that directly contributed to the death of Dr David Kelly in 2003.
I find manipulation of the evidence in this way far more sinister, and far more undermining of my trust in the NHS, than a doctor who makes an honest mistake and then reflects on what happened, to improve her clinical judgment.

That was my point; I feel the doctor was made a scapegoat for systems which need looking at.
She was failed, as well as the little boy who lost his life. (even though the outlook for him was probably shaky anyway)

We are all human. My OH was a doctor and had to give it up as the necessity to be perfect at all times was destroying him.

Everyone makes mistakes and doctors are no different to any other human being. They strive to be perfect in all they do, but we have to recognise that mistakes happen.

What helps to prevent these mistakes is proper back-up for doctors: a senior available at all times; a computer system that works so that technology-reliant results etc are available; fail-safe checks that the right patient is being treated; lab technicians freely available round the clock etc.

Our health service needs good protocols and systems to back up the medics. With budgets so tight these fail - and fail the front line staff as well as the patients.

It is unrealistic to expect doctors to be superhuman.

Can any one of us say that we never made the slightest error or misjudgement in the course of our careers? I cannot.

Yes, I suppose I am.
I just lost my daughter last year.
I would be absolutely devastated to think it was notched up as 'could have done better'.
I expect that colours my view.
I'm not blaming the doctor at all, but discussions have been on here about the need for 'joined up' care.

i think you are very grudging MissAdventure. There were a lot of mitigating circumstances, computers not working, a consultant who should have been there absence. She was not only doing her own job but covering for others as well.

I doubt there is a doctor in the world, let alone Britain that has not at some time in their carier been in the should/could have done better category

The doctors that scare me are the ones that think they are God and can admit no mistakes.

Its not very reassuring to think that ones loved one is a case of 'should/could' have done better.
I didn't watch the programme but it seems there were a few mitigating circumstances, and this doctor took the blame.

I am a retired medic. My feeling is 'but for the grace of God' My friends and I can all look back at cases where we feel we could/ should have done better. The pressure of work was overwhelming at times and doctors ,along with everyone else , make bad decisions sometimes or miss something sadly.
The poor doctor , just back from maternity leave, should definitely have had a senior doctor on the site.

The consultant who was supposed to be on duty - and carries the ultimate responsibility - had "double-booked" and was not there (indeed miles away) as he should have been - and he gets off scot-free. How can this be right?

There has been some ill- informed hysteria on MSM today about this case (quelle surprise) - she still has to serve the remainder of her 12 month suspension towards the end of which her case will be reviewed. At that review she will have to demonstrate that she is fit to return to practice with or without conditions. Btw if a doctor is struck off, after 5 years they can apply to come back ( but this is rare I believe). I’d like to know what lessons the ‘system’ has learned. For example - we are told that the IT system was down and so she could not access the blood test results - surely if a result shows sepsis, the path lab should immediately telephone the result and never just rely on the computer?